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Thanks to recent breakthroughs, the insides of our refrigerators could work very differently in the coming years. Scientists at GE are perfecting a method of transferring heat that uses magnets to achieve temperatures cold enough to freeze water.
In 2015, after 85 years of searching, researchers confirmed the existence of a massless particle called the Weyl fermion. With the unique ability to behave as both matter and anti-matter inside a crystal, this quasiparticle is like an electron with no mass. The story begun in 1928 when Dirac proposed an equation for the foundational unification of quantum mechanics and special relativity in describing the nature of the electron. This new equation suggested three distinct forms of relativistic particles: the Dirac, the Majorana, and the Weyl fermions. And recently, an analog of Weyl fermions has been discovered in certain electronic materials exhibiting a strong spin orbit coupling and topological behavior. Just as Dirac fermions emerge as signatures of topological insulators, in certain types of semimetals, electrons can behave like Weyl fermions.
These Weyl fermions are what can be called quasiparticles, which means they can only exist in a solid such as a crystal, and not as standalone particles. However, as complex as quasiparticles sound, their behavior is actually much simpler than that of fundamental particles, because their properties allow them to shrug off the same forces that knock their counterparts around. This discovery of Weyl fermions is huge, not just because there is finally a proof that these elusive particles exist, but because it paves the way for far more efficient electronics, and new types of quantum computing. Weyl fermions could be used to solve the traffic jams with electrons in electronics. In fact, Weyl electrons can carry charges at least 1000 times faster than electrons in ordinary semiconductors, and twice as fast as inside graphene. This could lead to a whole new type of electronics called âWeyltronicsâ.
Pretty soon, people wonât have to provide a fingerprint or a driver license to prove their identity â if VU has its way.
The Argentina-based fraud and identity protection company announced $12 million in Series B funding Monday from backers including software developer Globant, as well as Agrega Partners, NXTP Ventures, Bridge One, the IDB Lab and TelefĂłnica. The new funding gives the company total venture-backed investments of $20 million, CEO SebastiĂĄn Stranieri told TechCrunch.
Stranieri, who has worked in the cybersecurity industry for the past 20 years, got the idea for VU in 2007 after spending hours helping his grandmother verify her identity with the Argentinian government in what turned out to be a two-minute process.
Performance recovered!
Making good on its promise, Western Digital has deployed a new firmware for the companyâs WD Black SN850 SSD, which is currently one of the best SSDs on the market. The latest firmware will restore the SN850âs write performance when the drive is installed on a M.2 slot thatâs connected to AMDâs X570 chipset.
The SN850 is one of the fastest SSDs around right now. However, users were reporting a performance loss of over 40% if the SSD resided on a M.2 slot that doesnât directly communicate with the Ryzen processor. We donât see the issue affecting users that have the SN850 as their primary drive. But for users that have multiple SSDs and have the SN850 on an M.2 slot linked to the AMD X570 chipset, it could be a huge problem.
If you want to learn, then you have to break some things.
Summary: Brain cells snap DNA in more places and in more cell types than previously realized in order to express genes for learning and memory.
Source: Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
The urgency to remember a dangerous experience requires the brain to make a series of potentially dangerous moves: Neurons and other brain cells snap open their DNA in numerous locationsâmore than previously realized, according to a new studyâto provide quick access to genetic instructions for the mechanisms of memory storage.
To date, there have been no metrics for accurately assessing individualsâ inflammatory status in a way that could predict these clinical problems and point to ways of addressing them or staving them off, Furman said. But now, he said, the study has produced a single-number quantitative measure that appears to do just that.
Youâre as old as your immune system.
Investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging have built an inflammatory-aging clock thatâs more accurate than the number of candles on your birthday cake in predicting how strong your immune system is, how soon youâll become frail or whether you have unseen cardiovascular problems that could become clinical headaches a few years down the road.
In the process, the scientists fingered a bloodborne substance whose abundance may accelerate cardiovascular aging.
The compounds can form PFAS, also known as âforever chemicals,â which have been linked to cancer and birth defects. The E.P.A. approvals came despite the agencyâs own concerns about toxicity.
Two reports call for the development of global standards for gene editing, covering unfair and potentially dangerous applications of experimental techniques, including altering DNA to enhance athletic ability.
Richard Branson, the founder of spaceflight firm Virgin Galactic, successfully went to space for the first time on Sunday. It is a milestone for space tourism.
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World Economic Forum.
Saving $100 billion in lost productivity over the next decade.
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